“After ‘Srimanthudu, the kinds of roles I have been getting are all the same. A rich father role! So when Sukumar and NTR approached me for ‘Nannaku Prematho’ I agreed to do the film without even listening to the script because of their stature and talent.

Later when I reported for the shooting, I was disappointed. It was yet another ‘suit-boot rich father role. But having seen the final output of ‘Nannaku Prematho’ I am very much satisfied and glad to have been a part of this project,” said actor Jagapathi Babu.

When his career was at an all-time low, he got a new lease of life with the villain character in ‘Legend’. So, at this point, maybe Jagapathi should just focus on doing whatever comes his way instead of worrying about the creative aspect.

Despite his recent film Loafer failed to set box-office on fire, Varun Tej is in demand as filmmakers are trying for his call sheets. The actor won good name for his performance in Kanche and since then he has been flooded with many offers.

Interestingly, Varun Tej will be doing three movies this year and all of them would be beginning their shoots in couple of months. Director Krish who portrayed him as a soldier of Indian Army that participated in World War II in Kanche is planning to project him as a spy in his next film titled “Raayabari”. The film is expected to go to the sets next month.

Director Gopichand Malineni of Pandaga Chesuko has already signed him for his next film which is also expected to go on sets shortly. Rakul Preet Singh will play the female lead in the film.

Just recently Varun Tej signed a movie for top producer Dil Raju. The movie will be directed by a newcomer and it will start rolling from June this year. All in all, Varun is on a roll with three movies this year.

With four big movies releasing this ‘Sankranthi’ film lovers are a delighted lot. And they have reason to celebrate in the month of February too as four more movies are lined up for release. They are Sunil’s ‘Krishnashtami’, Bellamkonda Sai’s ‘Speedunnodu’ which is a remake of a Tamil movie and Nani’s ‘Krishna Gadi Veera Prema Katha’.

Looking at the competition, Krishnashtami which was originally scheduled for a Sankranthi release opted out of the race. ‘Speedunnodu’ is another attempt to establish Bellamkonda Sai as a hero whereas Nani will be taking another step towards super stardom with ‘Krishna Gadi Veera Prema Katha’.

And the week after these movies will release the much awaited Nithiin-Trivikram’s ‘Aa Aaa’. After disappointing with ‘S/o Satyamurthy, fans are hopeful of the magic touch of Trivikram resurfacing with ‘Aa Aaa’.

Actress Shruti Haasan will play actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan’s daughter in a yet-untitled Tamil project, expected to hit the floors very soon. This is the first time the father-daughter duo are teaming up. “Contrary to the rumours, Kamal and his daughter are not coming together for upcoming Tamil comedy ‘Appa Amma Vilayattu’. This is a different project altogether and it will feature Shruti as Kamal’s daughter,” a source close to Haasan told IANS.

The film will be directed by veteran Malayalam filmmaker T.K Rajeev Kumar. “Since Kamal was already in talks with Rajeev for ‘Appa Ammaa’, he brought him on board to direct this film, which will feature his script. Kamal has been working on this script for a long time.

“The rest of the lead cast will be finalized in a couple of weeks ,” the source said, adding the team plans to go on the floors by this month end Haasan is in talks with maestro Ilayaraja to compose the music for the film. “In about a week’s time, both Ilayaraja and Shruti will officially be part of the project,” the source added. The film will be shot in the US, where Haasan is currently finalising the locations.

Since the producer faced financial issues till midnight, doubts prevailed over that Young Tiger NTR’s ‘Naannaku Prematho’ get its early morning shows cancelled in many centers across the Telugu states. Finally, almost all clearance have been made so as to the smooth release of the film as per the schedule.

Reports are that the first show in Telugu states was started at Srramulu theater of Kukatpalli this morning. In the meanwhile, the total run time of the movie has been locked to 2 hours and 48 minutes.

‘Naannaku Prematho’ has Rakul Preet Singh in female lead role. Devi Sri Prasad has composed the music of the movie. The movie has been directed by Sukumar. BVSN Prasad has produced the movie on Sri Venkateswara Cine Chitra.

The differences between Balakrishna and NTR had hogged limelight yet again. This time, they are brandishing swords on each other in Sankranthi season by releasing both their films – Dictator and Nannaku Prematho on consecutive days.

Further there are rumours that Balayya is using his political clout to grab the theaters booked by Nannaku Prematho and depriving the Junior’s film of proper release. Balayya was asked about this in a recent interview and he responded like this.

“I do not care about films of others and the so called competition. And coming to the theaters issue, it did not come in to my notice. I am busy with my movie promotions”. Nannaku Prematho has released today and Dictator is seeing light tomorrow across the globe.

Over the past few months, there have been numerous discussions regarding the longtime friends, Pawan Kalyan and his Kushi director SJ Surya joining forces once again. There were also talks that the film will be a sequel to Kushi.

Now, SJ Surya, in his latest interview, has not denied but smartly confirmed his next project with Pawan. Surya said that he will not talk about the project right now and that Sharrath Marar is the right person to talk about the project, clearly hinting that Sharrath Marar will be producing this crazy project.

Apparently, SJ Surya recently narrated a one liner to Pawan which the Powerstar liked immensely. The project is still in early stages and Surya is currently developing the script. Meanwhile, Pawan’s high profile project with Dasari will be kept on hold since the script has not been finalized until now.

In a shocker, Actor Vishal Thakkar, who was seen in Bollywood films like Munna Bhai MBBS and Chandini Bar, has been slammed with rape accusations by his alleged girlfriend. The girlfriend of the actor reportedly lodged a police complaint against Thakkar.

However, reports claim that Thakkar is missing since New Years’s day i.e; January 1 2016. The buzz is that the duo sorted the differences and the complaint was taken back, but the actor’s whereabouts have not been traced yet.

Reportedly, Thakkar was mentally disturbed due to lack of opportunities knocking his door in the industry. The image was tarnished when rape allegations were leveled against the actor. On December 31, 2015, Thakkar went out for a movie with his girlfriend and since then he never came back home.

Bollywood Badshaah Shah Rukh Khan in a recent event expressed his various views and concerns, one of which was that he wants to be left out of the Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan’s Incredible India ambassador debate.

‘I don’t have anything to do with it: neither was I recruited nor was I let go. Please leave me out of it,’ Dilwale star told at the launch of ‘Shades of Bengal’ coffee table book by Kansai Nerolac.

Aamir Khan had earlier confirmed that he would no longer be a part of the Incredible India campaign and also said that he respected the government’s decision. Speculations then arrived that Big B will be pulled in to be the face of the campaign after the end of Aamir’s contract.

In the event Shah Rukh Khan even expressed his disappointment with Dilwale’s box office performance. ‘I don’t think the film has done as well as it should have. I am personally disappointed with that,’ the star said.

The Mumbai cops have issued a circular highlighting the lapses in the probe of Bollywood star Salman Khan’s hit and run case of 2002. Khan, whose Land Cruiser rammed into pavement dwellers killing one person, was acquitted by Mombay high court.

The move apparently was to avert the embarrassment of letting go a case involved with high profile people. The circular was issued to all the police stations dotted in Mumbai. The circular mentioned 16 flaws among many of which were procedural lapses of cops in the case.

The HC recently acquitted Khan of all the charges in the hit-and-run case. However, the Maharashtra government is planning to file an appeal against the verdict of HC in Supreme Court. Cops have been asked to present water-tight cases in future by taking lessons from the lapses made in Salman Khan’s case.

Festival seems to have come early this time for Balakrishna and cute grandson Devansh, as they both posed with similar traditional attires.

And this is the first Sankranti of Nara Devansh and why would Balayya miss the celebration time for anything else!Balayya’s Dictator is all set to hit screens on January 14th and the Nandamuri hero is quite confident on film’s success.